Destiny
by words2live
Summary: New adventures of a new doctor. All throughout time and space there is an innocent observer that meets The Doctor from time to time. They don't know each other, and don't even seem to know of each other either. What is it then that connects these two? It stars the 12th doctor and some familiar faces.
1. Chapter 1

Destiny. Ouch. My name, that is. Don't look at me like that, I didn't choose it, it was the one that came to me! And if you start with the jokes about the pop group who claims to be my child… Well, go ahead. It's not like I'd hear them anyways!

I made a discovery recently, well, we all have with everything that's been happening all around the world, alien ship over London, fat walking, whatnot, but the thing is, you don't believe it until you actually see it with your own eyes, do you? And I have. I've seen it all. Well, some. 'Cause I've been out there.

I know what you're thinking now, an astronaut with a name like this?! And you're right, I'm not an astronaut. I don't know how to operate a spaceship or move around in vacuum in a space suit. And you pretty much need to nail these if you wanna be an astronaut. So I heard anyway. And these requirements made a lot of sense, even to me – until I sat down by an old police box in the park.

I love parks. I like to think of them as the perfect compromise between nature and civilization: they're built and grown at the same time. Peaceful. Even people are different, happier, calmer in parks.

Anyways, I read a lot and one needs a good spot for that. It needs to be quiet but not deserted, soft on the bum but supportive on the back, warm but not right in the sun 'cause I've a very sensitive white skin. So as luck would have it, I found this big blue police box in the corner of the garden, right by the rosebeds and it was perfect. I was just submerging in the darkness of Poe (literature course, I don't actually read Poe for my own pleasure!0 when the door I was leaning on was suddenly opened from the inside.

* * *

_THE NINTH_

_Destiny ran out to the dark alley ignoring that the sirens went off. _

"_Bloody Nazis" she murmured, more annoyed than scared. She was so close to the truth, she felt it, so very close! And they had had to go and start bombing again. She had followed the stranger who joked about objects falling out of the sky – as he was leaving the club, he'd accidentally touched her hand. And Destiny felt it. She felt the familiarity, the wisdom, the deep emotions, all and each every one of them. She knew he was full of answers so she came out the same way but he was nowhere. Where could he possibly go?! _

* * *

"Oh hello!" I heard a man welcoming me in a surprised but warm voice. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were out there."

I stood up slowly but needed to lean on his helpful arm heavily. My head hurt like hell – but I still noticed, he was kinda cute. Very cute, actually. He had a thin face, deep, really deep brown eyes and spiky, black hair. He was looking at me rather concerned.

"Are you feeling alright?"

"No worries," I said, "I didn't realize there was somebody in here either!"

I smiled at him but stopped halfway, noticing the room. The police box was just the entrance apparently. It opened up to a hll of some kind, with several levels and staircases and a round console in the middle.

"Wow, look at that!" I said and walked past him to the console. There was a couple standing by it already, apparently just as amazed by the size of it as I was. (I'm not a size-phobic but admit it, we're more impressed by the tallest building in the world than the smallest statue.) It had hundreds of buttons and pulls and leavers and bells, and little screens and everything on it. It looked like some kind of machine so to see what it did, I started pushing, pulling some of the things on it.

"Stop!" the cute stranger said, jumping next to me immediately. "Don't touch those!"

I laughed at him.

"It's not gonna break, look at it! It's for you to try, can't you see? C'mon, push that button!"

As if to support my intention, the middle of the machine lit up and started with some funny breathing sound.

"Aw, see, it's working now!" I said enthusiastically but my cute stranger tried to pull me away. Snap! I held on too tight and one of the yellow leavers stayed in my hand.

"Oops!" I said. "I think it did break after all!"

This didn't stop the man, he started to push more, running around the console like crazy. I joined in and the room shook and shivered and then with a huge bang it became silent again.

"Wow!" I couldn't help saying. "That was awesome! They should advertise this thing better!"

I smiled at the couple but they looked too shaken to return it.

"You're OK?" I asked them.

"Doctor?" the woman said looking at my stranger. He still played with the console, the lines on his forehead appearing deeper in the blue light of the funny machine than before.

"I need some time here" he said. "Never touch the TARDIS again, do you understand?!" he shouted at me.

"Calm down, mate! It's just a stupid exhibition, the police won't take you away! There's no damage made!"

"You think?!"

I didn't like the look on his face, it was like proper mad. Maybe he built it, I thought, but still, it was just one leaver out of the hundreds of different things on the machine, and it was still working.

"I'm sorry" I said in any case, but he paid no attention. I thought I'd better leave. Machines and me, we're always like "a tornado meets a volcano" as our friend Eminem says, better to keep my distance. I opened the door to get some air and stepped out.

* * *

I clutched the leaver that was still in my hand.

"What the …"

The park was gone. There was water everywhere I looked. I was standing on some kind of wooden structure that seemed to be haphazardly erected from wreckage. I probably should've worried about its stability but I didn't care much for all that. 'Cause right in front of me was standing a fish.

I know, I know, it's a self-conflicting description but I swear: it was a fish and it was standing on its two feet! It was blue and had a water tube on his face, presumably as a means of breathing or whatever fish do, as it was outside of water. It had hands and a body and two legs as people would but his face was not human.

It looked right at me, not moving an inch and I was quickly running through scenarios in my head that could explain all that was happening. Have I used a different door? Was he wearing a mask? Was it a statue? Was I dreaming? Did I hit my head harder than I thought? Was I on some kind of drugs?

I still felt the hard wood of the door at my back and I tried to open it without taking my eyes off the creature, who seemed to be frozen at the shock of seeing me. But the bubbles moved up and down in his tube, so he wasn't a statue, that was for sure. The door was stuck, I kept pulling and pushing but it didn't move a bit. I felt the panic growing on me and screamed as the fishman took a step towards me.

"Guys, come here!" he shouted out. I shook my head. Surely, that was impossible. How could he speak English through a tube?! No, I decided, it was either part of that reality game I seemed to be stepped in when I fell through the door of the police box or I simply fell asleep. That was the only explanation for not only their existence but for me understanding them as well. I decided to roll along.

"Hello" I said and his eyes widened, tilting his head from one side to the other.

"You speak Hath!" he exclaimed and I laughed.

"What's your name?" I asked him and noticed several of his kind climbing up the poles. They examined me just as curiously as I examined them.

"17" the first one said and I noticed how similar they looked. It was going to be hard to distinguish them.

"Is that your name?" I asked him again and he pointed at the water tube in front of his face.

"That's what it says here" he replied and sure enough, there was the big number 17 in black on it.

"What are you, appearing in our world out of thin air, speaking the ancient language of the Hath?" another one interrupted. He had a deep, angry voice but I figured him straight out: he was harmless, he just wanted to impress the others around him. I gave him my hand and smiled.

"It's Destiny" I said and many of them repeated my name with awe. It had been a long time since I had that kind of effect on men, so even if they were only fishmen, I was kind of pleased.

"We'll take you to the Elders" he said and to his command one fishman grabbed each of my arms. I didn't object. There was no danger in the air.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks for the quick reaction to chapter 1 everyone. Special mention Mathea2005 and SalvatoresILY for their reviews, it's highly appreciated! I hope you'll like the next installment, too! **

* * *

2

We were at the bottom of the wooden tower, at the surface of the ocean. The fishmen slid into the water one by one.

"I think you forgot something…" I leant over to check the number on the leader's water tank, "…41."

I pointed at my face. 41 shook his head but 17 exclaimed with the new discovery:

"She can't breathe under water!"

I nodded approvingly. Dreams aside, I was not ready to drown. It's such an ugly death. 41 turned to his men.

"Any ideas?" he asked. I thought that was clever from him. I can appreciate a leader who doesn't pretend to have all the answers himself and clearly, he was confident enough to admit that. I petted his shoulder encouragingly but he shook it off.

I sat down on the board we were standing on, took of my shoes and hang my legs in the ocean. It was just as it had always been. Cold, salty, deep, dark, magnificent. 17 squatted down.

"Don't be afraid, we'll use one of the bubbles" he said.

"Bubbles?" I looked up at him and he nodded. "You don't mean actual bubbles, do you?"

"Take her down!" 41 instructed his people before I got my answer. They grabbed my arms and took me under water. I tried to protest, kicked around and pulled my arm but they were a lot stronger than they looked. And apparently, stupider. They didn't quite grasp the concept of not being able to breath under water, I thought.

But I was wrong. Two other fishmen swam along, holding something in their hands very carefully. They put that things over my head and slowly pulled it around my body. It was a bubble, an actual air bubble, and I was standing right inside it! I didn't dare to move in fear of bursting it, and took really small breaths to make sure I use the air very economically. But one fishman put a tight belt around it and the bubble was still there. They installed a hook on the belt and started to move it (and me) down.

"Are you OK?" one of them asked swimming beside me. He pushed his tube over his head, like a weird little cap that omitted some gentle, calm, green light. He turned the number carefully to the front. It was 17.

"I'm not sure it's a good idea to tell you the truth" I admitted. "It's a small bubble – I'll run out of air eventually."

"You won't. It works for long, you'll see" he said. It was still weird to see his mouth, it was a proper fish mouth, no teeth, thank god for that, but no lips either. How did their speaking work, I didn't understand. But I had more pressing problems.

"Have you tried it before?" I asked him about the bubble.

"It is being used in the Elder's Council" he said.

"And it's never burst?"

"Never. It's safe, I can assure you. Look!" he started to push the side of the bubble but it only changed shape at his touch momentarily and bounced back to the egg-shape it had before straight away.

"See? Don't worry!" he held up his palm by the side and hesitantly, I pressed my hand on the other side. It was weirder than I even imagined. It felt rubber, or those gummy bears we used to have like 10 years ago. It was completely transparent but it was strong, I could feel that.

I started to panic less about me and air and looked around. As we were descending in water I saw how many of those fishmen were around us. Their green lights lit up the ocean like little fairies. Ugly little fairies at that but they seemed harmless and that was enough for me. I felt their excitement, and I understood that I was the cause of it. I smiled as I turned my head around but still didn't dare to move my feet. No matter how solid this bubble seemed, I didn't want to challenge fate more than necessary.

Then I spotted the blue box. It was also in a bubble and pulled down, apparently in the same direction as me. They only took the part of the whole building that looked like the police telephone box from the 1960's but strangely enough it still had the four walls. But it didn't have a wall when I was inside, as far as I could tell. Maybe it was just the door on the other side. Or…

"Hey!" I shouted out as I fell on the ground of the bubble. My pulling fishmen changed direction too abruptly. We must've been close now, we were surrounded by buildings of stone. They stood there, tall and proud just as if they were on land.

"Wait a minute!" I said out loud to no-one in particular. 17 swam closer, paying attention but I was more occupied with the buildings. They were very familiar. They looked exactly like…

"London!" I exclaimed and now I turned to my companion. "Is this really London under water?"

He shook his head.

"Not London, Lolo!" he said.

"Lolo?" I repeated. "Well mate, this looks a helluva lot like the London I know! Look at that! It's the Big Bang. It's exactly like the Big Bang!"

"That's the Tower" he corrected me.

"No, the Tower is…" I turned around now in the bubble fearlessly, partly due to my enthusiasm, partly because I already fell hard on it and nothing happened. "Look, it's over here, just below us!"

He shook his head again.

"That's the Palace of the Elders, that's where we're going!"

So. I was going to the Tower. It might have been a different world but history said, this was not a good thing. What did these creatures want from me then?

"What exactly are the Elders, 17?"

* * *

_THE FIFTH_

_Diamond. Light. Choice. Flames and screams and darkness and black. Nothingness. _

_Destiny struggles with absorbing all these emotions. _

"_It was the choice, not the diamond" a kind voice says approvingly but Destiny can't take her eyes off of the vast space outside the windows. It looks endless. _

"_He'll return" someone else says and the thought makes Destiny shiver. _

"_He can't..." she whispers. __"It'll ruin everything."_


	3. Chapter 3

3.

I was in the Tower once, as a tourist, walking through the corridors and rooms and stairs of the different buildings with an audioguide. The building that I was taken into by the fishmen used to have an armour exhibition in it. There had been two school groups there at the time of my visit and the children were ever so annoying, loud, running about, pushing each other, laughing – I couldn't hear my own headset! I got out of the building as soon as I could.

Now, the place was dead silent. Nobody was speaking or laughing and there was definitely no running about. I hugged myself as I suddenly felt rather cold.

There was a huge table in the middle of the hall that was well lit, thanks to all the observers around the windows who looked in with their strange headlight-watertube cap. They blocked all the view, if there was any but at least it wasn't dark inside.

I was still being pulled in the bubble by two fishmen but 17 stayed behind by the door. I wished he'd been there by my side, he seemed friendly. The other two took the hook off and left through a window.

I was alone, in the middle of a mediaeval hall, under water, in a bubble. My initial optimism turned into a rather nervous tenseness. Despite of being totally impossible, everything seemed rather real.

A number of big, fat fish descended slowly from above and took their places behind the long, vast table. I didn't sense anything hostile off them but their oversized ego of importance could easily turn into something dangerous. I waited patiently, trying to get as much of their emotions as possible so that I could play my cards well. It's all about poker face, remember that.

They were talking among themselves, a usual technique to show everyone who was in charge but I cut right through.

"Elders of the … Hath!" I started, hoping I remembered the name 41 had used when we met, correctly. They all looked taken aback by my speech.

"I'm using your ancient language to express my respect for your great race!" I continued and looked around, addressing the fishmen in the windows as well. They felt pleased enough.

"I'm honoured to be in front of you all…" I stopped because I didn't really have any idea what else to say. Not knowing what they wanted or anything about what was important in their society proved to be a real handicap at that moment. So I waited for them to speak.

"Why has the child of a lost world come to the Hath?" one of the Elders asked. Good question, dude, I'd very much like to know that myself, I thought. I looked around, searching for some excuse when the bubble with the blue box was pulled in. Excellent, I thought, just what I needed.

"I came to give you a present, Elders of the Hath!" I said and pointed at the box. The all got excited, some of them even stood up behind the table.

"This is it!" I heard a lot of them whispering. They were speaking quietly but the words "prophecy, pope and war" popped up often. I waited curiously.

"The Pope will descend now!" one of the elders proclaimed and all the fishmen raised their hands, as if they were waiting for a god. I looked up. It was another bubble floating in from above, pulled only by gravity or the will of its occupant.

It was a man. A very old man, white hair, long beard, dark skin – and I hate to point it out but in a desperate need of a proper bath. He looked surprisingly dirty, given there was no dirt under water.

The Elders helped him to the middle of the table and moved away, giving him some respectful distance. The Pope had his eyes closed and with a flexibility defying his age, he sat down, legs crossed like the Indian yogis. For all I knew, he might have been an Indian yogi himself. He sure looked the part.

He opened his eyes and stretched his arms out at the same time so quickly and suddenly that everybody, including me, moved back.

"It cometh!" he said with a strange accent and I shook my head a little. I didn't realize there were accents in Haath, a language that I didn't know I was able to speak.

"The war! Now! End!" he continued in broken sentences. The fishmen clapped and danced all around, even including some of the Elders.

"The child, the gift, the sacrifice!" the Pope continued. "The last death!" he exclaimed, pointing at me, starting off another wave of excitement.

"Wait a minute!" I said but nobody paid any attention, they were too busy to celebrate the end of their war.

"Hath!" I shouted, and slowly they started to listen. "Death never ended any war, your mighty race knows that!"

The Pope raised one hand to silence everyone.

"You death. All ends" he proclaimed.

"But… Who are you fighting with?" I asked him just to buy some time to think. This was not going to be the end of me. Not here, not in a world that didn't exist.

"The Bubble Heads" he said.

"You don't need my death," I attempted to convince him, "you only need the machinery, the secret weapon!"

"Secret weapon?" the wave of excited whispers repeated everywhere.

"That's why I brought it to you!" I said. The Elders and the Pope looked confused.

"That is not the Prophecy!" the Pope hallowed after a tense silence. "This is not the way to be!"

I couldn't help but notice how good his language and grammar suddenly got. What was that dirty old bastard playing at?

"Show me the prophecy!" I said, looking right into his eyes. "I came to help you. And to win this war!" I added quickly because they all seemed to be pretty hyped about their victory.

The old man hesitated but one of the Elders waved 17 over from the door.

"Take her to the prophecy!" he commanded. "And the rest of you, prepare, prepare for the sacrifice of our final battle!"

"I'll need my box, my weapon, too!" I said but apparently I pushed it too far. The Pope stood up, quicker than one would expect based on what he looked like.

"The box stays with me!" he said and gestured some fishmen to pull him and the box back up and out. I watched them disappear, hoping that the people I met in the park were not inside it any more – or at least they heard all this and are better prepared than I am.

"I guess we're not going that way…" I said to 17 who shook his head and took me out through the side door, grabbing the belt on my bubble himself.

"So these Bubble Heads, tell me more about them!" I asked him.

"They are soldiers, and they live under water like us. Before the Big Flood, they were in hibernation but when everything sank, they woke up and started to conquer the other species. They take them as slaves and use and torture them until they die!"

He seemed pretty shaken up about it.

"How do you know what they do with them, 17?" I asked him gently.

"The Pope!" he whispered with admiration. "He was captured but escaped and travelled all around the Earth to help the fight against them!"

"Did he now?"

I didn't trust the man. There was something not right with him.

* * *

_THE FIRST_

_Destiny watched the young girl walking arm in arm with an old man with the big hair and a very pale, white skin. _

"_Don't you dare to do that again, Susan!" he said and Destiny was surprised to see the girl's warm smile in return. She herself was rather scared of the old man. _

"_Run away, little child!" Destiny heard the frightful whispers in the air. She looked back at the young girl and the man, and jumped to her feet. They were walking, oblivious to everything but there was smoke leaving the big black ring on the man's finger. Smoke that now spoke to her. _

"_Run away and don't look back!" _

_Destiny turned on her heels and ran, ran as fast as she could. _


	4. Chapter 4

4.

"What did you do that for?!"

It was the two of us who said that at the same time: my cute Scottish stranger (aka the mad scientist) and me both addressed the handsome, tall man from the console room. He looked back at us confused and a bit hurt.

"Aren't you grateful?" he said to me with his generic American accent as he grabbed the belt of my bubble preventing it to float down to the back of the surface. 17 was hanging listless on the other end and I was rather worried about him. He received an unexpected, big blow on the head from the American.

"We have to take him up, too, Jack" the Scottish one said to him. "The Hath would die if we left him sink unconscious."

Jack sighed and they both grabbed the belt and started to swim up pulling me and 17 with them.

"Hath?" I said. "Do you know these fishmen then?"

"They're called Hath. Although I suppose "fishman" is quite an accurate term. They should be living on land by now."

"How do you mean 'should'? Have you been here before?"

"No, not personally."

"I don't understand."

"It's a long story" Jack interrupted, "maybe you could discuss it once we're on the surface and I'm not pulling the dead weight of the two of you?"

"Hey!" we said again simultaneously with the Scot.

"I'm not a dead weight!" I continued.

"I'm pulling, too!" he said.

"Pull more then!" Jack said.

"Who are you people? And what is this place? Where's the park? How did I get here?" I listed all the questions at once that stirred in my head since I stepped on that tower in the middle of the bloody ocean.

"You shouldn't press buttons and pull leavers that you don't know what they do!" the Scot said.

"It should be behind glass wall if you don't want people to touch it but what the heck does it have to do with anything?"

"It's a spaceship that travels in time, and you landed it somewhere in the future. Don't know when and where exactly because you broke my TARDIS!"

I opened my mouth to answer but there were no words. I mean a spaceship! That wooden box, with no rockets, no protective layer, no oxygen mask or seats even, how could that thing travel in space? You can understand my confusion. And there was that other thing: time travel? Seriously? I wanted to object, I wanted to tell them that this was impossible – but with everything that happened it really felt like that was the only explanation.

I travelled through time and space.

Because I pushed the buttons and pulled the leavers of a funny little machine.

Hard to get your head around it, isn't it?

We arrived at a different wooden tower on the surface – this one was smaller and floated on water. The men took off their diving respirators and pulled themselves up, while 17 and I were still floating with the bubble.

"Hold them, Jack!" the Scot instructed him and pulled a small, torch-like object out of his pocket. As he pointed it at me, its end lit up and it gave a strange, buzzing sound. The bubble disappeared and I would've sunk under water, had it not been for the strong arms of Jack who caught me straight away. I looked into the handsome face from closer. A little older than I usually go for, smiling black eyes, dark hair, fine features. Not bad to look at.

"Hello" I said.

"Hello" he replied with a wide grin and pulled me closer.

"Thanks for saving me."

"My pleasure."

"Stop that, Jack!" the Scot said and I was sorry to see that Jack obeyed. He pulled me up to the bottom of the tower and then let go.

I twisted my hair to get rid of the water dripping from it.

"What's your name?" the Scot turned to me, still beeping his torch around as if to scan our surrounding.

"Dee. It stands for Destiny."

"I couldn't argue with that" Jack said and winked at me. I smiled back.

"I'm the Doctor and this is Captain Jack Harkness" the Scot said.

"Captain, ha?"

"At your service, madam."

"Not the time, Jack!" the Scot said. I turned to him.

"So you like to be called the Doctor? Just the Doctor? No other names?"

"I think that's more than enough."

"Ok then, Doctor, would you check on my friend, please?"

The Doctor sighed and kneed down to check on 17.

"Is he OK?" I asked him.

"He'll be fine. But why is he alone? And where is their city?"

I pointed down to the direction of the London I'd seen under water.

"It's there."

The Doctor jumped on his feet, shaking the whole tower. He came up close to me.

"Why is it there? What's under water?"

"There was a …" I started to explain, thinking he was talking to me but he tapped on his earpiece.

"Calaya, what have you found?" he said and walked away.

I sat down by 17 who was still unconscious.

"He took me to that billboard where you guys were hiding" I said to Jack, "to show me the prophecy."

"Prophecy? What prophecy?" the Doctor came back with a sudden interest.

"They thought that the picture we've seen on the billboard was a prophecy about the Bubble Heads and the war."

"This same billboard?" Jack asked and pointed at the picture on the side of the tower.

"Exactly! I haven't noticed it before."

It was the picture of a red-headed girl sending off some light from her chest, with people in white diving suit swimming away in one corner and some fishmen coming in on the other side.

"Never mind that" the Doctor said, scanning the picture with his torch, "what war? Why are the Hath in war? Who with?"

He looked distracted and clearly not expecting answers from any of us, more like thinking aloud but as a matter of fact, I had some of the answers he was looking for.

"The Bubble Heads. They're in war with the Bubble Heads."

The Doctor came back and examined my face again from rather close up, making me quite uncomfortable.

"Who are the Bubble Heads?"

I pointed at the billboard.

"I think we are."

He turned on heels to check the picture again, scanning it with his strange torch.

"What is that thing?"

"It's a sonic screwdriver" Jack said.

"Aha. Interesting. Can it warm us up? 'Cause I hate to point out but the sun is going down, we're all wet and there's a whole city under us preparing for war right now."

"Good idea!" the Doctor came back and put one hand on both my and Jack's shoulder. "Let's find the TARDIS and then let's stop this war, shall we?"

"Doctor?" I said. "They have your blue box if that's what you're looking for."

"They?"

"She means me" the Pope's voice was so loud in the Doctor's earpiece that even I could hear it. Jack and the Doctor jumped up.

"Who are you?" the Doctor asked. "And how did you get into the TARDIS?"

* * *

_THE SECOND_

"_I'm gonna go on that TV show and you can't stop me!" Johnny said stubbornly. _

"_I don't wanna stop you" Destiny answered and crossed her arms. _

"_He'll help me! You don't, but he will!" Johnny said, stumping impatiently. _

"_You go ahead!"_

"_But… You need to come with me. You're my nanny" the little boy added quietly. Destiny took him into her arms. _

"_I can't, darling. He frightens the last bit out of me."_

* * *

I checked on 17 again. He'd been unconscious since we came up to the surface even though he seemed to be breathing fine through his watertube. It was getting cold but at least we were dry thanks to the Doctor's sonic screwdriver.

The Doctor was walking up and down on the platform when a bunch of blue heads appeared around the tower. We all seemed equally surprised to see each other; apparently they didn't expect to see us either. One waved at me and pulled down his watertube. It was old acquaintance 41.

"Hello again" I said to him.

He climbed up with two others, making the small platform rather overcrowded.

"We're lighting the red flames tonight" he said conversationally to me, ignoring everyone else. "It's a call to war."


	5. Chapter 5

5.

"You'll need to take us to the Pope. Do you know where he is?" the Doctor asked 41. He briefly looked at him and turned back to me.

"Are you hurt, too?"

"No, I'm not" I muttered silently. I felt really bad about 17 who moaned from time to time but still didn't wake up.

"We can't take him down" 41 said, looking at 17 but not touching him.

"Do you want to leave him here?!"

"It's time for the prophecy" he said, avoiding a straight answer. He held out his cold, wet hand. I stepped back. It was not inviting.

"Take us to the Pope. He's required for the prophecy." I said.

41 hesitated. I don't think he agreed but apparently didn't want to deny my request.

"Who are they?" he asked me, pointing at Jack and the Doctor.

"They are..." I started and stopped. I'm a good bullshitter but there was no excuse I had prepared for situations like this.

"...my companions" I finished hesitantly. Jack and the Doctor looked somewhat strange at that particular label but I thought it was pretty much the best description one could come up within such a short time.

41 was still undecided, he even tried to scratch his head, which was impossible, given he had no fingernails.

"What's wrong?"

"There's not enough time for that. We can't delay the war" he said, motioning his team to climb up the tower.

"Then let's go quickly!" the Doctor said.

"I don't take orders from Empty Faces" 41 said arrogantly. I had to smile at their naming. It had logic from their point of view but it was wrong on so many levels from ours.

"You're, of course, an exception" 41 finished looking at me, bowing his head.

The two fishmen came back and the red light above our head got stronger and moved around quicker. It reminded me of the lighthouses I've seen in Ireland. And it stirred something else, too, a long lost memory, or a dream?

* * *

_THE SIXTH_

_Two men in the red light, definitely men, even if none of them looks like it at the moment. Both are full of anger, hatred, revenge. Their thoughts like arrows cut into Destiny's skin. She screams in pain but no-one notices, no-one cares. _

_One is sitting in a machine that looks a bit like an oversized cup. His whole lower body is hidden in it, if he has any. It's a scary machine, shining agressively, full of (a sickness) like bumps. But the creature in it was even scarier: no eyes, no arm, no smile. _

_The other is squatting in front of him, eyes burning, unforgiving. A woman wants to pull him away, wants him to look at her, to remember who he really is. _

_But how could she do that without knowing herself?_

* * *

I realised that practically everyone was looking at me intensely, even 17 who woke up. I was so deep in that scene, I couldn't tell how much time had passed - did I say something out loud? To avoid all the looks, I kneed down besides 17.

"How are you feeling?"

"I think better than you" he said, the worried look showing even in those watery eyes. "I'm sorry I failed you."

"You need to share the bubble" 41 said who was very eager to get going.

The deep water was a lot darker than before. It was dusk and there was only a handful of Hath around us to light our way.

"Do you have a plan, Doctor?" Jack said.

"We'll get the Pope out of the TARDIS..."

"What about the war?" I interrupted. I somehow didn't like the notion of the fishmen fighting what might be the last of the mankind.

"I can't stop all the wars in the universe!" the Doctor said rather exasperatedly.

"You mean you're gonna let them sacrifice me?"

"No" he said and I could've punched him for his hesitant voice. So much for companionship.

"Of course not. But we don't even know what they're fighting over..." he added.

"I have a good guess" Jack murmured, pointing down. We were passing other buildings that looked familiar.

"What do you mean?"

"Land. Or the lack of it, more precisely."

"Oh" I had to digest this for a while. As I was sitting in the bottom of the bubble deep in thoughts, I noticed the Doctor and Jack exchanging meaningful looks.

"What's up?" I asked them but then I saw it: the blue box standing in a bubble on the top of a tall, flat roofed building.

"So what's the plan?" I whispered. The Doctor took out his sonic torch or what was it called, and pointed it around the area.

"Calaya is inside" he said conclusively.

"And the Pope?" Jack asked.

I didn't hear the Doctor's answer. A loud, sharp alarm went off with sounds that hurt my ears so much, I could do nothing but scream in pain and cover them. The two men held themselves better but the group of fishmen around us shook all over their bodies until they stopped moving altogether. I watched in horror as one by one they sank towards the bottom.

17 was shaking, too, but kept on pulling us towards the roof with enormous willpower - once we were set on the top, he collapsed and didn't move.

"We have to roll the bubble to the TARDIS" the Doctor ordered and started to push the wall in that direction.

"What are you doing, we can't leave him here! He saved our life!" I shouted.

"There's nothing we can do!" he said dismissively.

"He didn't give up on us, how can we give up on him now? We have to help him!"

"We can't! We need to go the TARDIS!"

None of them looked back, or looked at me, and in a matter of seconds we were by the other bubble. They pushed our bubble a bit more and it simply joined the other. The Doctor ran to the TARDIS door and Jack tried to pull me with him. I shook his hands off me and pushed the remainder of the bubble out of the TARDIS's one to get back to 17.

"Dee, don't!" Jack shouted after me but it was too late. My bubble quickly separated from the other one and he couldn't come after me without bursting their air supply.

17 looked even worse than he did up in the tower and I felt completely gutted and guilty. He laid there, he might have been dead just because he met me. Just because I pushed some bloody buttons on a stupid machine. They knew it could happen, why did the Doctor and Jack and that woman let me touch it at all?!

When I was by 17, I rolled the bubble over his body and luckily it simply included him in a second. I pulled his watertank over his face and waited for the frothy sound to show he was breathing. There was nothing. The siren was still shouting over my head and I couldn't concentrate. What do fish need when they don't have air? I had no idea.

Suddenly someone grabbed the belt on my bubble. I looked up - I was surrounded by hundreds of fishmen, whose headlight was changed into an angry red one.

"The Sacrifice, the sacrifice" they kept repeating, getting louder than the siren. And then it all suddenly stopped. The fishmen froze, the siren was turned off and the only sound I registered was my heavy breathing. Until the song started.


	6. Chapter 6

6.

I hadn't heard more beautiful or tragic melody before. It filled me and everything around me. There was nothing left but the desperate begging in the waves.

"Brothers by birth,

Brothers by right,

The choice is yours,

It is the light.

Take the blood,

The city will fall.

Take the sky,

And on we roam."

The song suddenly stopped and I fell on my knees to the bottom of the bubble. I felt empty, confused and lost as if all emotions had been sucked out of me.

"Mum..."

"17?"

I crawled over to him. His eyes were still shut but he was definitely breathing. I took his head in my lap.

"It's just me, 17" I said.

"The song..." he said weakly.

"I heard it, too" I whispered to him.

More fishmen with red headlights appeared around us.

"Take the sacrifice to her final place!" one of them gave the command and my bubble was pulled again, by more than before and very quickly I found myself inside the building.

"17? What do they mean by final place?" I asked. I didn't like the sound of it.

"It's where the prophecy is fulfilled" he said. He sat up and took my hand. He was cold and wet but I still found his touch comforting.

"Will they kill me?" I whispered.

"Not if I can help it" he said. "And we're not alone. That song you've heard? It's ancient, older than this city and it's the hymn of the revolution."

The others started to shake the bubble violently and 17 slipped out without breaking it.

"What revolution?" I asked him but he was taken away.

"Trust me!" he shouted back before he disappeared.

* * *

_THE ELEVENTH_

_"Trust me!" he said. _

_Destiny knew the man was telling the unacceptable truth. She saw it in his eyes, in his desperate compassion. It wasn't blasphemy despite what others said. He shouldn't be killed for that. _

_But she also felt the void in the others that ultimate faith filled. She could leave and live on but they couldn't. They had to stay and they had to believe that they were still on Earth. _

_And after their crash, who can say they weren't better off?_

* * *

I desperately needed a plan. I was in the middle of angry fishmen, running about, planning my sacrifice and I wasn't willing to comply. But I was completely alone, in a bubble under water, on the verge of a war that apparently I triggered just by being there. Talk about stuck, eh?

I saw only one solution: I needed to get out of the building, swim up to the tower and hope that the Doctor and Jack would be there. Easy peasy.

I looked around in the room. It was dark, because there was only one fishman at the door with his headlight. The others were getting their weapons out based on the conversations I could catch. The window was walled in, so it was not an option. But there were two others doors opening from the room and they might've had windows, I figured.

I slowly started to push the bubble towards one of them, checking back to the fishman by the door who didn't seem to notice my movement. It took me a while to get to the door with that speed and I was utterly gutted: it was just a small wardrobe, no exit whatsoever. I started to move back towards the other two, trying to maintain the safe slow approach when I saw something move in the wardrobe.

I turned back to check what it was but I saw nothing in there from where I was standing. Was I imagining something? I waited for a while but nothing moved so turned back to continue my slow journey towards the other door. And again, I saw a movement from the corner of my eyes! I turned my head and caught something on the floor. It was as grey as the concrete the building was made of, but it was in a heap. I wanted to get closer but a fishman came up to me. I checked his number on the headlight: it was 176.

"You're our only hope" he said dreamily. "We'll be free once this war is over, and we can live anywhere, and see the world! Can you imagine?"

He was quite friendly compared to the fact that he was about to enter a war.

"Why is war the only option?" I ventured a question and then froze. Behind his back the grey pile I'd seen earlier slowly moved towards the other door. It lifted its head for a second and I realised it was a diver. A human was down here among the fishmen! I had to engage 176 to make sure the diver would find their way out.

"...and with you, we're taking no risks!" he just finished answering my previous question. I smiled at him.

"What about that song? Where did it come from?"

His light bickered.

"Some say it's old. My grandma used to sing it..."

"So it's a song of your people?"

"It used to be. Before..." he stopped.

"Before what?"

"Before everything changed. But it's gonna be over soon, thanks to you!"

His light was a steady red again.

"How are you going to do it?" he asked. "If you don't mind telling me."

I noted that the diver left through the other door, and I was desperate to follow him.

"It's a secret" I said to 176. He waited for a moment but when he saw I didn't have anything else to say, he bowed his head in agreement and backed out of the room. There was no-one standing by the door then, all the fishmen were marching up and down the corridor, shouting for weapons and formations at each other. If it was a war, this was definitely not an army. They looked like a bunch of kids, playing soldiers. Whoever they were up against, had an easy job.

But their lack of attention made it easy for me to get to the door. It was completely dark but I saw some lighter area through the window. A window! That's what I needed, I thought, and decided it was time to take the chance and burst this bubble.


	7. Chapter 7

I punched the bubble but it bounced back, no matter how hard I hit it. Then I tried to burst it with my fingers but couldn't get hold of tight material. I even kicked it, nothing happened. It proved to be a lot more difficult to break it than I thought, and I didn't know how much time I had until the fishmen noticed I was gone. The only thing that reminiscent of a sharp object was belt buckle so I took off my belt and scratched the bubble with the buckle's needle again and again and suddenly it collapsed with a loud bang.

The bang was followed with more, shaking the whole building. They were louder than my bubble, they sounded like bombs. The fishmen were in panic, and I was, too. The bubble was stuck on my head, and I couldn't see anything. What was worse, I dropped my belt buckle in the explosion and now had to find it if I didn't want to suffocate under the strong layers of the bubble.

I was on my knees, feeling about for the buckle on the floor when I felt the cold hands of a fishman on me.

"Sacrifice!" he said. "What happened?"

By the title he used, I figured he was no use in helping me so I hit him hard with my elbow. He was back in a second.

"I'm trying to help you!" he said.

I kicked towards where I thought he was but didn't aim well. He tried to keep my arms down but I was in a panic by that time. I hardly had any air left in my lungs and I still had the whole journey up to the surface even if I was able to get rid of him. Somehow this whole escape thing seemed a little impossible at that moment.

I suddenly felt the buckle under my hand, so grabbed it and shoved it hard in the fishman's face. I heard it breaking his headlight and he collapsed on me. Shaking him off I cut the bubble on my face as quickly as I could but it still took a couple tries to get it off my face. I felt the building shaking under me, there had to be a lot of detonations. How long did I have before the whole building collapsed, I wondered.

I felt victorious when I could open my eyes – but it was a lot worse than I thought. The window was blocked as the ceiling fall over and I had no way to get out through there. I turned around and swam through the door. The whole corridor was crashed, a lot of the fishmen were stuck under the heavy concrete, screaming in pain. I saw more and more red dots in my eyes as I tried to find an exit but the whole ceiling seemed to collapse on our floor and there was no way out.

I was trying to get through a small opening when somebody grabbed my legs. I kicked them off, and this time, I was successful. But it was all dark on the other side - and I had no air left.

* * *

_THE THIRD_

_Destiny was washing the floor when she saw the woman who was hiding in the corner. She waved her over. _

"_Take this to the Doctor!" she pleaded handing her a note. Destiny shivered. _

"_Which one?" _

"_The tall one? With the grey hair and the red jacket?" _

_Destiny pushed the note away. _

"_I'm not going near him" she said and turned. The woman grabbed her arm, pulling her back. _

"_But he can help, don't you see? The Doctor could help us, all of us!" _

"_Not me" Destiny murmured, and left the woman in the dark corner. _

* * *

I woke up as a bubble-head. Somebody put a diving helmet on me and was trying to get me into the rest of the suit. As he was zipping me up, I could see his face: it was Jack in a white diving suit.

"Hello again" he said with a dazzling smile.

"Umm, hel-lo" I said slowly. "What are you doing here?"

He pulled me up to sit and connected the suit with the helmet at my neck. Even through the layers, his touch made me blush.

"I'm saving you, of course" he said. "Again" he added with a wink.

"Well, thank you. Again." I replied. "The bombs stopped, too!"

"Yes, you can thank for that to the Doctor and Cayala. They did that part."

"But... How?" I was confused.

"They were set to go off automatically once the red light was lit in the tower. Cayala found the program and turned it off. How are you feeling?" he said, looking at me worriedly.

"I'm good."

"You look good" he said smiling again.

"Aren't you nice?"

"Jack!" the Doctor's voice in my helmet made me jump a little. "I'm afraid we don't have much time!"

"We couldn't stop the bombs after all. We just delayed them" Cayala explained.

"Dee?" Jack asked. "We have to go."

"I heard" I answered.

"Oh, I didn't know your com was on. How much time do we have, Doctor?"

"Probably 15 minutes."

I stood up but my head was spinning so badly, Jack had to catch me before I felt back to the ground again.

"You just like to do that, don't you?" he said light-heartedly and I was grateful for his sense of humour. There's nothing worse than being in a shitty situation with a sour face. You never know when it's the last time to laugh.

* * *

_THE EIGHTH_

_The man was unconscious for a long time but when he woke up, he laid his big palms on her shoulder, leaning her heavily. _

"_What hap…?" he tried to talk, looking dishevelled and lost. _

"_Where did you come from?" Destiny asked him kindly but he didn't seem to have any idea. He suddenly burst into a big smile. _

"_Are you my wife?" he said and cupped her face into his warm hands. Destiny blushed. _

"_I'm most certainly not!" _

"_Too bad! I'd like to have kissed you!" he said, taking her hand and kissing it. He walked away with a mischievous smile. Destiny looked at him going for a long time. _

* * *

Swimming out of the building was slower than we wanted. The fishmen were starting to pull together and we couldn't let them see us in our diving suits. We were the enemy after all.

As we were hiding behind a collapsed wall, waiting for three fishmen swim to the other way, we heard shouts from the left. Before we could see what was happening, a grey diver ran into us, followed by a fishman with green lights.

"Swim!" the diver said, and I didn't recognise his voice first.

"Follow me!" the fishman directed us. As the red lights were following them and the three fishmen we were hiding from turned back as well, we had no choice than to do so.


	8. Chapter 8

"This way!" the fishman leading us said. I have to admit, water really was their element. No surprise there but it was very discouraging to see how close our chasers were to us and no matter how hard I tried, the distance got smaller and smaller.

The fishman in the front must've realised it, too, because when he looked back, he stopped.

"Go in there!" he said pointing at a door on his right. When I caught up with him, I saw his number.

"17!"

He looked closer to my helmet.

"Destiny?" he asked. I wanted to hug him, I was so happy to see him but Jack pulled me away. 17 took out a small detonator from his pocket.

"What are you planning?" I asked him.

"I'll blow up that wall."

"But they're too close."

"We'll be fine" he said. Even in Hath I can sense when somebody is trying to blow me off.

"I don't think..."

"Get in there!" he said, no, he commanded, and I was so surprised to see him strong like that, that I obeyed. We went to the furthest wall and waited there.

"I have no idea where we are" the unknown diver said in some annoying, posh English. "We'd better wait for him."

"Is that your only reason to wait for him?" I told him. "After he's saved your life don't you think you should wait for him anyway?"

He didn't reply. We heard a loud bang.

"Jack?" the Doctor said through the radio. "We just heard a detonation. Where are you guys?"

"We're fine, Doctor, we're on our way up. The detonation was to stop our chasers."

"You've only got 9 minutes left."

"9 minutes!" I exclaimed. "Where is 17?"

"9 minutes until what?" the English fellow asked. We didn't reply, both Jack and I swam towards the door to check on 17.

"9 minutes until what?" his voice grew panicky and I looked back at him astonished as I finally recognised that voice.

"You're the bloody Pope! What the fuck are you doing here?"

"Dee!" Jack interrupted. "Cover me while I check on 17!"

I lifted up an old iron piece from the floor and went to the door. Jack swam out and I followed him carefully. We got to the collapsed wall without seeing anyone but 17's green light was too close to the collapsed wall. I saw the Pope following us but turned my attention to 17.

"You've got to go!" he said. "I'm trapped."

"Let me see" Jack replied and took a torch to see the wall. It did not look good. It completely sealed us off from the redlights alright, but it fell on 17's legs.

"I wasn't quick enough" he said bravely.

"We can do it. I'll need your help though" Jack said to the Pope. "It's gonna take the two of us to lift this part."

I could see the Pope thinking. He probably weighed his options of getting away alone or spending time on freeing 17. It was disgusting.

He nodded eventually though.

"Let's find an iron pipe" Jack said and they swam into the nearby rooms.

"You shouldn't do this. You have to get out" 17 said.

"We will. We all will" I said to him as I was clearing up the smaller parts of the concrete from him. The men came back with a pipe each that they hooked under the concrete behind 17's trapped legs and started to push both down.

"C'mon!" Jack shouted. "C'mon!"

It slowly started to give away and I pulled one of 17's legs out but then Jack's iron pipe broke.

"Damn it!" he said.

"Why are you guys not moving?!" the Doctor yelled at us through the radio. "You've only got 5 minutes!"

Jack moved over to the Pope's iron pipe and they pushed it down together.

"Two... seconds..." he said, and I quickly got the other leg free as well. 17 let out a cry of pain.

"Let's go!" Jack shouted and he took 17's arm. To my surprise, the Pope took the other.

"17, we have to be quick. The building will blow up in 4 minutes. Which is the shortest way out?"

17 pointed to the right, and we swam as quickly as we could. We zigzagged through the building according to his instructions, and when I felt we were never going to get out, we swam through the exit.

"C'mon, quickly!" Jack shouted and we all gave our best. I heard the detonations behind me with the screams of everyone inside. It was awful. We didn't even try to save them, we just saved ourselves.

* * *

_THE FOURTH_

"_I think you need some jelly babies, dear" the tall man said frowning at something in the distance and Destiny shivered. _

"_I'm a ballerina, sir" she replied and turned away. Oh, how she'd kill for some of those jelly thingies!_

"_And a brave one, at that" he said, still looking ahead. He suddenly turned to her. _

"_Promise me this: you'll only wear your own shoes. No other ballet shoes. Agreed?" _

_Destiny slowly nodded and watched in surprise as the man wan away. _

"_Hatter!" she said and went on to the practice room. _

* * *

I looked back at the ruins of the building. It was surrounded by fishmen whose headlight was blue.

"Who are they?" I asked 17.

"They are..." he stopped. More and more fishmen from the inside started to get out.

"Their lights are still red!" 17 said quietly. "They're gonna fight..."

He was right. As soon as the red-lights spotted the blue-lights, they attacked them with devilish intensity. The blue-lights seemed to be surprised first but then put up a good fight. They all used short swords and soon the water around them was getting red with all the blood.

"We have to go up" Jack said quietly and 17 slowly nodded.

"There's nothing I can do now" he said with a sorrow that broke my heart.

When we found the tower, we all were silent. We climbed up and the Doctor was there waiting for us with Cayala.

"You've made it!" she said and hugged Jack tight.

When the Pope took his helmet off, I stepped back in surprise. It was a young man with short black hair, nothing like the Pope I'd seen in the bubble.

"What the...?"

"Who are you?" 17 asked.

"Liutenant George Kudrakos III, member of special taskforce W" he said slowly. He spoke English.

"What did you say?" 17 asked him in Hath.

"He's a soldier" I told him. "A stupid, evil soldier!" I added and punched the man in the face.

"Woa!" the Doctor said and stood in front of me. "We don't need that."

"But..." I started, but he interrupted.

"Did you stand in as the Pope?" he asked the Liutenant.

"Yes. We used a perception filter" he said plainly.

"Very clever!" the Doctor said. "So tell me Liutenant, what does the red light do to the Hath?"

"They see everyone else as their enemy" the Liutenant answered and then added in Hath turning to 17:

"I'm so sorry, 17, we just wanted to protect the little land we have left."

"You've killed my people, you're killing them right now!" he answered and he tried to get up but his legs hurt too much.

"We have to stop this" the Doctor said. He put his hands on the Liutenant's shoulders.

"You want forgiveness from him? Here's your chance. Tell us how to change their lights back. Help us to stop this war."

He looked deep into the Liutenant's eyes who bit his lip. He still didn't know what to do.

"George, George, George!" the Doctor continued. "The Hath and the humans can live in peace. They don't want your land, why would they? They've all those ancient cities they can see under water! The flood gave it to them! Don't fear them, George!"

The Doctor shook him gently.

"Choose right! Save them, George! Tell us how!"


End file.
